Bundling

At one stage of developing my 'cassette to CD' website, I came up with a downloadable guide for visitors who wanted to try their hand at converting their own cassettes. Making money from this was a somewhat clumsy process involving 'locking' a PDF file, and providing unlocked versions for those that paid a donation. I was paid anything from 50 cents to $10 via PayPal.
I have re-thought this system recently when I discovered that you can sign up for a bundle scheme that effectively 'bundles' your download with an offer - if your visitor acts on the offer, you can get paid out. You will have seen similar things when downloading free software yourself. It seems to me to be a fairly neat solution, so much so that I think I might dust off my guide and bring it up to date before trying my hand at bundling to raise some of that elusive passive income..

Busy-ness

I have been (as happens from time to time) lax in updating any of my blogs lately. There is no MLS actions at the moment, so I have nothing to say in my Beckham Blog, I rarely update my travel blog, and have not had time to write anything for Munny4Hunny or TheCreditCruncher lately.
Although I am fully recovered from my broken arm, I am very busy with stuff at real 'work' lately and have embarked on a DIY project which involves pulling our small office at home to bits - no floor at the moment, although the PC's are still running...
Hopefully the DIY project will mean I end up with a smart new office, but knowing that rate at which I work (I don't get many hours at home in which it would be possible to work to be fair...), it could take a while.
Not much happening on the cassette to CD conversions lately which is making me think I ought to probably do some SEO work on some of my sites and see if I can get any decent links (or even crappy links, I'm not fussy..!)
I am thinking I will probably charge any new office furniture to my home 'business', which will save me some income tax, but knock my profits for six!!

Address Plaque

An Address Plaque makes a nice finishing touch to any house, especially after you have just painted the exterior, or had some other major renovation work done. We have a plaque made from tiles on our house and, not only does it help to identify our house, it also helps people to navigate the street when the house they are looking for has no visible number.
I find it particularly useful when using Google 'streetview', I find the street and then begin trawling up and down looking for a house number so that I can find the specific house that I want. Maybe that's not the main reason to buy a house plaque for your home, but it will probably help people like me who like to navigate around streetview!

January 2012

January has not been a particularly busy month for internet earnings, I have done a few cassettes and that has yielded about £70, plus a few affiliates and blog posts giving a gross income of around £90, I paid out a little over £6 on postage and paypal fees, hence a total income of £84.52.
I have also had a refund of £120 from the water company for overpayment of our direct debit, but in other news, I have lost about £140 on a savings plan (cheque for £120 and statement showing a loss both arrived today in the post..).
I have also had to spend £110 on a new circuit board for my central heating boiler this week, but as it all works so much better now, I feel like it was money well spent. More about how eBay solved my heating problems in a later post I think...

Gas Grills

With the weather we are currently having, I have to say that Summer, barbecues and gas grills seem an awful long way away. Nevertheless, it is a good time to start thinking about plans for the garden. Our new (for 2011) garden swing has taken a bit of a pasting over the Winter, so I am already costing up new swing covers for next year.
Some of the larger playthings have not weathered particularly well this year, so hopefully we can get away with 'losing' some of them this year - although to be fair, no toy ever leaves our house without the most severe of protests...

Wedding bands

I guess that New Year is one of the most popular times to think about 'popping the question', I am indeed one of the many who took advantage of New Years Eve (many years ago now..) to get engaged.
When it came to the rings or wedding bands, we went for simple traditional gold bands in 18ct gold, but the choice goes far wider than that. Although I don't think I would ever be personally comfortable with a diamond ring for a man, I could quite happily have gone for a 'white gold' ring instead of the more traditional yellow.

Latest Progress

The first month has been a busy month for me off-line, and reasonably busy on-line too. I have completed a few cassette to CD conversions, and although paid-posting was very quiet, opportunities are just starting to appear again. I don't 'chase' paid posting as much as I used to, and often don't have time to follow up every opportunity.

For that reason, I was excited to hear about 'oxamedia' a service that posts dynamic ads similar to adsense, but after setting it up, I found that the button that is supposed to take you to a 'log-in' page to see the performance of your sites does not seem to work, and takes you to a 'page does not exist' error. My conclusion is that if one one hand the ads are working, but on the other, I cannot log in and therefore cannot see earnings (or be paid..), then it looks like an active scam to me.

I found another opportunity that seems to offer a service matching advertisers to publishers on a space 'rental' basis (more passive income..), but so far have not been able to work out whether it will be worthwhile.

In other news, my arm is on the mend, the cast came off three weeks ago, and although it is a bit painful and a bit swollen, I can use it pretty much normally. I managed to take a photo of the last X-ray, I have one more X-ray in about two weeks time as a final check. I marked on the X-ray where the break was, but it is fairly difficult to see much of the break in the photo.

Medicine carts

Although the worldwide economy is experiencing difficulties across all types of industry, some industries such as medical and municipal will often be less effected by economic strictures.
The growth in infrastructure may well slow down a little, and a few jobs may be lost, however, in the main, some industries remain relatively unaffected although it is true to say that the armed forces seem to be taking more of a hit that usual at the moment in terms of 'rationalisation' and consequently, job losses.
Although hospitals may experience a slight staff-loss, it would be very unlikely to see many job losses in important operational sectors, therefore the manufacturers of scalpels, hospital beds and medicine carts probably don't need to worry just yet!

Acoustic guitar lessons

This year, my daughter was allowed to choose an instrument to play at school. Although I have played piano a little in the past, I was hoping she would choose acoustic guitar lessons, because guitars are relatively inexpensive and very portable (unlike pianos...). However, she decided to follow in my 'footsteps' and chose piano/keyboard instead.
The 'upside' of choosing piano is that I can help her quite a bit in the early stages, but I have not quite given up on the idea that she may eventually want to also learn guitar. Probably mainly because I gave my guitar away to my niece some years ago, and would like an excuse to buy another...

Quiet January

2012 has so far been a quiet month for online activities, but that is more than made up for by how busy I have been offline with my regular job. It is nice to have a break over Christmas and the New Year, but I could do with a few things that would give me a boost to my Paypal funds...

Although I have pretty much decided that the laptop restoring idea is not going to make much profit, I do have a lot of spare parts, some of which I may be able to use to make up a few working laptops with a few additional parts. For this reason, I have started trawling eBay looking for bargains again.. I am assured that of the four 'spare' laptop motherboards I have at least some of them can be 'repaired' so hopefully that will give me a platform to sell some working systems - if that doesn't work, I will need to catalogue all the spare parts that I have and see if I can sell those off instead...

Scanning software

For the modern office, and even for the modern home, document management can be a crucial process. A combination of scanning software and file organisation can help to successfully store and recall documents without needing physical folders with reams of paperwork.

My home scanner can produce PDF documents with character recognition which makes searching easier - every document that comes into our home (bills, statements, insurance certificates etc..) are scanned and then destroyed. They are destroyed to prevent identity theft, and every file is backed up on a daily basis so there is little chance of losing a document.

Nadolig Llawen

Merry Christmas - work has finished for a week or so, and I am going to publish my December earnings even though December is not yet over. I don't expect any earnings over the next week or so, so I have effectively finished working in my 9-5 as well as my online 'work' for the festivities.
I managed to get a couple of extra tape to CD conversions out to clients this week and have received some paid blogging income for work over the last few weeks. I bought more CD's and cases for my tape conversion business otherwise, profits would have been a bit higher. Not a bad showing for the last month of 2011 though:
Turnover was about £185, but the additions to stock cost me £23, and postage costs were £13. The profit for the month was £149 which is another healthy profit, stock purchases also mean that I am in a good position to do more tape conversions without having to buy stock for a while. Total profit for the tax year is close to £1100, from a turnover of just under £1300, more than half of which came from cassette to CD conversions. I have made about £500 so far since the beginning of April from blog posts and passive (affiliate and adverts) income. I have three months to go before the end of the current tax year, hopefully I can get some decent chunks of income in before then... In the language of my birth, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, in the language of my adopted home I wish you all Nadolig Llawen!

Arm Update

I have had my new shorter cast for a week now, and everything is almost back to normal. The medical team were kind enough to cut an 'S' shape in the new lighter cast so that I could remove it if I wanted to take a bath etc.. and for the last few nights I have tried sleeping with the cast removed. I had this new cast fitted last week, and my immediate problem of not being able to drive was instantly fixed.. Having elbow movement back again was great - I even had a half-decent game of football on Saturday...
Two more weeks of this and I think I should be able to remove the cast altogether (next appointment is on 28th December..). I had a weeks 'vacation' off work last week, and am happy to report that I think I have all my Christmas presents purchased, and cards sent...

Should be a few more cassette to CD jobs to come in before Christmas, but I have already done quite a big order this month and have had a few more paid blog payouts. Financially things are looking pretty strong (ironic considering the European Economy seems to be crashing around our ears at the moment..). We are still enjoying ridiculously low mortgage interest payments, and I am still managing to overpay my mortgage which means that some of the principle should be eroded before the (likely to be inadequate) endowment comes up in ten years time...

Update

I am counting down the days 'til my next appointment - should be Wednesday and hopefully, a cast that will allow me to drive again.. I have another batch of tapes to complete - only about 9 or 10 this time, but should be a nice bonus before Christmas...

I have booked some time off at the end of this week and the beginning of next for Christmas committments and a bit of Christmas shopping - this could all go pear-shaped if I don't have this cast taken off though...!

I am about half-way through Christmas shopping - all the easy ones are done, a couple of slightly tricky ones to get out of the way, then need to parcel everything up to go to my parents for distribution around the family. I hope to get all my Christmas cards done soon too. I have another laptop on eBay for a 7 day auction at the moment - this should help me draw even on the purchases I made, then it will be a case of getting a few repairs done and any sales I can make from the vast piles of spare parts I have left will be the profit. As I have said before, I have enjoyed the experience of laptop refurbishment, but would not recommend it as a business plan unless it could be done on a larger scale with a lot more time...maybe another idea for if I find myself out of work at any point in the future...

Next update on Wednesday!!

Dead sea salts

Christmas Ideas #8
Apparently dead sea salts have a number of beneficial properties for your skin, and are used in a variety of skin care and bathing products.
The Dead Sea is known for it's high salt content which means even the least buoyant of us will float in it. So I guess there must be plenty of Dead Sea salt to go around. I have seen this salt used in products to aid muscle aches, help skin conditions and have even seen it used in shampoo. If you're struggling to think of a unique gift for someone - this is a good choice, probably for a more mature adult with aching limbs - like me..

Triple bowl undermount sinks

I am in no state to do any DIY at the moment even though there are a list of jobs to be done. I need to prep my freshly plastered hall and landing for painting. there is a lot of work to be done in the bathroom, and I am supposed to be fitting a triple undermount sink in the kitchen.
I may have to address some of these issues if my plaster cast comes off this week, otherwise my better half is threatening to 'get someone in' - a luxury I don't think we can afford...
My online earnings pay for a few little treats here and there, but would soon be soaked up by a tradesman in a few hours.
To be fair, once I start on these jobs, I get a lot of satisfaction from them, I am just struggling to get started.

Garter belt

Christmas Ideas #7
The 'traditional' gift from a man to his special lady might well include a garter belt or something equally alluring. There's nothing quite so warming for the long winter nights as something to make you hot under the collar.
Moderately priced and fun for both the giver and the recipient... bedroom wear could be the perfect gift for your lady, and a chance to treat yourself at the same time!

November 2011

I can hardly believe that it is December already... but it has been a bumper month for cassettes to CD's this month, largely due to one significant order. There has been a few paid posts to crack on with too, some of which will pay out in a week or two.
I have added in some postage costs to the spreadsheet that I managed to miss off last months report... All in all, I have to be very pleased with this month although I am mindful that earnings have come mainly from one job - I must look at how I can boost earnings across all the different revenue streams. Checking against last years earnings in November, I am ahead by about £200 using the same months, but earnings are so haphazard, there is no guarantee that by the end of March, I will be anywhere near £200 ahead - I am chasing an annual profit of £1375, so still have some way to go..
I got a small payout from eBay partnership which boosted passive earnings a little, but I would prefer to see larger totals in this column!

Equestrian boots

Christmas Ideas #6If there is a budding cowboy or cowgirl in your family, you may well be looking at investing in some equestrian boots at Christmastime. There are many different styles available for youngsters an adults alike.
Traditionally these boots are made from leather which adds to the price, but also to the elegance of the boot. However, for the budget-conscious, or for those who object to leather, manmade materials are also quite popular.

Arm Update

Finally the artist has been at work and decorated the cast on my arm as you can see. I am hoping that I will only have this on for one more week as I have an appointment next Wednesday. The cast is awkward and preventing me from getting a good nights sleep amongst other things, so I really hope it will be gone soon...
There are so many things I can't do easily although I have a good go at most things. I definitely can't drive, it is not so hard to get dressed now, but taking a bath is quite hard with one arm held up in the air. A colleague kindly makes sandwiches for me at work, and even answering the phone is tricky because if I need to write anything down, I don't have a spare hand to do it with!
Having said all that, I don't have much pain, and I have use of the hand at least if not the arm, I can hold things (as long as I don't have to really grip hard) in my left hand. As far as broken arms go, I think I have got off fairly lightly.